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Briefs: Veterans seek office

COLORADO SPRINGS — A large and possibly unprecedented number of former soldiers, sailors, air force personnel and marines are running for Congress this year amid unhappiness with the war in Iraq.

About 40 of the candidates are Republicans, while at least 55 are Democrats. By one count, at least 11 veterans of combat in Iraq or Afghanistan are hoping to get elected to the House or Senate. All but one of them are Democrats.

The Fighting Democrats, as some call themselves, say their military experience could give them the credibility to criticize the war in Iraq without being dismissed by Republicans as naive and weak on defense. (AP)

LITHONIA, Georgia

Funeral for King widow

Shivering in near-freezing temperatures, thousands of people waited hours in line starting at 3 a.m. Tuesday to say goodbye to Coretta Scott King before her funeral.

"There's one word to describe going to go see Coretta - historic. It's good to finally see her at peace," said Robert Jackson, a 34-year-old financial consultant from Atlanta whose 10-year-old daughter, Ebony, persuaded him to take her to the visitation.

About 10,000 people were expected to attend the funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where King's daughter Bernice is a minister.

King, who carried on her husband's dream of racial equality for nearly 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, died Jan. 30 at 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke. (AP)

MEXICO CITY

Hotel checked for bias

Mexico's government is looking into imposing sanctions against a hotel owned by an American company if officials conclude it expelled Cuban guests because of their nationality or because of pressure from the U.S. government, Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said.

A meeting between Cuban officials and U.S. energy executives was moved to another hotel Saturday after the Hotel María Isabel Shératon asked the Cubans to leave.

Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, said the U.S. government put pressure on the hotel's owner, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., arguing that it was violating a law that strengthened trade sanctions imposed against Cuba in 1961. (AP)

DETROIT:City leaders are using the Super Bowl, and all the trouble fans had getting to the game Sunday, to push for a mass transit system.Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Monday he was lobbying state officials to help bring a comprehensive transit system to the city, at the center of one of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas without one. (AP)